Scout's project to make Eagle creates Grove City Community Disc Course

Buy This PhotoJOSHUA A. BICKEL/THISWEEKNEWSEagle Scout candidate Paul Rouch (center) chats with Jamie Woods (right) as he and George Brooks place a disc golf tee box while working on Rouch's Eagle Scout project Saturday, July 19 at the Grove City Church of the Nazarene, 4770 Hoover Road. For the project, Rouch designed and coordinated construction of the new Grove City Community Disc Course on property behind the church.

Buy This PhotoJOSHUA A. BICKEL/THISWEEKNEWSBoy Scout Steven Buehler clears out weeds to make way for construction of the Grove City Community Disc Course behind the Grove City Church of the Nazarene.

Over the years, members of Grove City Boy Scout Troop 275 have completed a number of Eagle Scout projects that have benefitted the community.

The latest project is par for the course.

For his Eagle Scout project, Paul Rouch led a group of troop members and volunteers Saturday, July 19, as they built an 18-hole disc golf course at Grove City Church of the Nazarene, 4770 Hoover Road.

The Grove City Community Disc Course is expected to be open this weekend or next.

"I'm a member of Grove City Nazarene so I went to our church and asked if they had a project they needed doing," said Rouch, a junior at Grove City Christian School. "Our assistant pastor suggested the disc golf course. It's a project the church and the city have been wanting to do for a long time.

"I was really happy to be able to do this project, because it's something people in the community will be able to enjoy," he said.

Eagle Scout is the highest rank a Boy Scout can earn.

The course starts along the large field located to the south of the Church of the Nazarene's 60-acre property. The back nine holes snake their way around the baseball diamond and football field.

Paul Jay, a trustee with the Columbus Flyers Disc Golf Club, helped design the course. Members of the club were among about 30 Scouts and volunteers who helped build the course Saturday.

"It really fits a need," Jay said of the new course. "There's really no 18-hole course in the Grove City or southwest Columbus area. There used to be a course on the West Side on Georgesville Road, and a lot of people were upset when that closed."

The course at the church "is a good recreational course, that families are going to be able to come out and enjoy using," he said. "It's going to be a great course to introduce people to the sport of disc golf, especially children, but it isn't going to be a really tough one to play."

"It's a really neat project because it involved Paul and the other members of the troop coming together to get the project done," said assistant troop leader Rory Hansen.

"I think the best part of this project is that it involves the Scouts, the church and the city," said Paul's father, Jerry Rouch, who also serves as an assistant leader for Troop 275. "It truly is a community project."

While the course will soon be open, the city and the church are planning a formal grand opening event for Sept. 7, Mr. Rouch said.

The event is expected to include food trucks and other activities, he said.

Paul Rouch said he has never played disc golf before.

"I'm going to have to come out to the course and give it a try sometime," he said. "It sounds like it's fun."